In Her Mother's Shadow
by LittleHogwartsGirl
Summary: Occulta, a Kazilik/Celestial breed, lives in the colony of New South Wales. However, living in the shadow of the mother Iskierka, she longs to be in battles and win glory. Her quest takes her to the other side of the world...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: All characters you know or recognize belong to Naomi Novik. No matter how much I wish they were mine, they are not. Occulta, Amalia and other OC:s are just that: OC:s, made by me.**

"Please, I am sure we can do it!" persisted Occulta. "Can we not just try?"

"Never, Occulta, it will not happen", was the firm answer of Occulta's captain, Amalia Rickbone.

"But…" tried Occulta once more.

"No." Captain Rickbone's face was stony as she turned away, leaving Occulta in the clearing alone.

"Oh", said Occulta stubbornly, "I will do it, yes, I will, just like mother did, and Amalia can not stop me." She lay there, on the ground, coiled up neatly, brooding at her plan.

"Occulta!" cried Amalia's voice from the landing ground. "Time to get all set up!"

Occulta hissed steam from the spikes protruding from her striped black-and-red body as she snorted a stream of fire. Then she took off, casting all of her long body up into the air, flying towards the landing grounds to get harnessed for her patrol duty.

Occulta did not have a full crew, but she did, however, have a full harness, and so it took a while to get her rigged.

"All lies well", she said as she thumped back to the ground. "Come now, Amalia, let us be off." She put out her claws for her captain to climb into and then gently lifted the woman up onto her shoulders. Latching herself on, Amalia said:

"Yes, Occulta, let us be off."

The patrol was the same one Occulta always flew, and as usual nothing happened. In fact, nothing ever happened at the covert of New South Wales. The only event of note that had happened in the near six months since Occulta's hatching was that another egg of Temeraire and Iskierka, Occulta's sire and dam, had been hatched. The dragonet was yet only two weeks old and had simply been named "Hatchling", since the little dragon's captain, Ronald Locker, was so utterly confused by the egg suddenly hatching that he blurted out the first thing that came into his mind. Occulta thought, with rather a smug air, that her little brother would not like his name when he was fully grown, like her – she had grown unusually fast and was expected not to grow anymore. She was also very angry at Hatchling – _he_ did not have to stay and patrol all day, _he_ did not have to make do with just lying about getting fat. _He_ was allowed to go on a dragon transport all the way back to England to be in battles and win glory. But Occulta was not going to take that, not at all.

This patrol was however supposed to make all the difference in the world. If Occulta's plan worked out, and she could not see why it would not, there would be no more boring patrols or just lying about the clearing. She would be in real battles.

After some ten minutes of incredibly boring patrolling – she did not even have another dragon to keep her company, since there was a shortage of dragons at the covert – Occulta began to deliberately fly slower and more laboured.

"Are you all right, dear one?" shouted Amalia from Occulta's back.

"I do not feel so well, Amalia, can we please land?" Occulta tried to make her voice sound tired.

"Yes, of course we can, you just go right down", Amalia said, noticing they were directly above the covert landing ground.

Occulta slumped to the ground, coils spread in a rather messy way, and her small crew dismounted. Amalia climbed down, stroked Occulta's muzzle and asked:

"Do you want something to eat? I will fetch it for you; you need not get up and fly about."

"Yes, please, Amalia, very much", was Occulta's tired reply, and her captain scurried off.

At the same time, a slightly larger dragon landed beside Occulta, his rustling black wings folding as he twisted his neck to look at his first hatchling with a large blue eye.

"Father", Occulta said with a curt nod.

"How very nice to see you, Occulta", said Temeraire, his ruff rising slightly. "I hope you are well?"

"Not so very", Occulta said, keeping to her act.

"Oh, no?" the Celestial said, his voice immediately concerned. "You do not cough, do you? Or sneeze? Perhaps you are not breathing well?"

"There, there, Temeraire", said a voice from above. "I do not at all believe Occulta has contracted the plague." Iskierka the Kazilik landed with a rather heavy thud. "Where would she have contracted it, do you suppose?"

"Well, I…", said Temeraire, apparently rather sour to be caught worrying. "I didn't think of that, only I am so very worried, since we cannot have the mushroom brought here, if one of the dragons here contract the sickness, it will take too long."

"Pray, Temeraire, do not worry", came the voice of his captain, Will Laurence. "I am sure Occulta will not contract the plague, and not Hatchling either", he added hastily as Temeraire seemed to want to interrupt. With that, Temeraire snorted and walked off, his tiny crew walking towards the covert buildings, Iskierka following Temeraire towards the clearings.

"Emily!" said Occulta as she spotted the only woman on Temeraire's crew. The girl turned around and broke into a wide smile at the sight of the dragon.

"Occulta", she said, walking up to the Kazilik-Celestial hybrid. "Are you not well?"

"Yes, in fact I am", Occulta confided, and Emily's eyes widened in surprise. "I only said I was not so Amalia would get me extra food. For the journey", she quickly added at the young woman's puzzled look. "Will you come with me?"

"Um…", said Emily, her face confused. "To where?"

"Well, back to Britain, of course!"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sorry about the short chapter, the next one will be longer. **

The look on Emily Roland's face was so amusing that Occulta gave a snorting laugh and breathed fire out over the ground, with Emily screaming jumping aside as a result.

"Oh, Emily, I am so very sorry", Occulta apologized.

"No, I was just surprised…" Emily said, still looking confused. "But why?"

"I want to be in battles too", Occulta explained, "like Hatchling will be, and like Mother and Father was."

"Well, I understand that, but you cannot just go", Emily said, apparently trying to keep the dragon from leaving. "You cannot leave Amalia, can you?"

Occulta looked as shocked as a dragon can. "Of course I will take her with me! Please Emily, please, please come too."

"I do miss Mother, and I terribly wish to see Excidium, but Laurence would be oh, so angry, and Temeraire so disappointed. But I do want to see the Isles again…"

"Great!" Occulta exclaimed, hissing steam. "Could you climb aboard me? We leave when Amalia comes back with the cows."

Rather hesitantly the girl did what the eighteen-ton dragon said.

A rather shrill shriek caught Occulta's attention, and turning her head she saw that Amalia had just been pushed to the ground by one of three cows, all three now running around wild. Occulta took off, flew around the cows whilst breathing fire and so effectively killed them. Then she swept down, grabbed one cow in each of her forepaws and one in her jaws before scooping Amalia up and heading towards the ocean.

"Occulta!" cried Amalia. "Where are you going?"

"I'll get you up onto my back", Occulta said, purposefully neglecting to answer, and stopped, hovering in midair. She moved Amalia to her side, where the captain could climb up onto the dragon's back. Occulta then continued flying, munching on the head of a cow.

"Roland?" asked Captain Rickbone, puzzled at the sight of the young woman.

"Yes", said Emily. "Hello, Captain."

"Where is she headed?" the captain said, with a voice sounding tired. "Occulta, I mean."

"Occulta", Emily said, slowly, "seems to have decided to go back to the Isles." She could not help but let a great smile spread over her face.

The captain's shoulders seemed to droop as she sighed. "I suppose like mother, like daughter." She could remember only too well when she had, some six months ago, arrived to the colony of New South Wales aboard the great dragon transport _Allegiance_. She had originally been assigned to one of the eggs brought on the _Allegiance_ in the first place, a Yellow Reaper, but following the incredibly fast making, hardening and hatching of Occulta's egg, she had become the captain of the young dragon – sitting down on her haunches directly after hatching, Occulta had firmly announced that "I would like a female captain, if you do not mind". However, that was not the point. Occulta was the result of the mating between the Kazilik Iskierka and the Celestial Temeraire – but she had not existed at all if Iskierka had not grabbed her captain, John Granby, and flown after the _Allegiance_ when Temeraire and Laurence had been convicted to transport and then labour in Australia. Iskierka did not follow because she did not want to fight in Britain – she very much liked to fight – but because she had decided upon Temeraire giving her an egg. The Kazilik, being a firebreather, was not a dragon anyone would like to upset, not even Temeraire, who possessed the divine wind – which was the reason of Iskierka's choice of mate. She wanted her egg to have both the fire and the mysterious invisible shattering ability of the Celestial's divine wind. Therefore, mainly to keep her quiet, Temeraire had given Iskierka an egg, which has hatched Occulta, and after some time another, which had hatched Hatchling. So far, Occulta did not possess the divine wind, but the fire she had had from hatching; she nearly set fire to the dragon transport after breaking the shell. Now it appeared that Occulta had gotten more from her mother then her captain had thought. Such as the will to fight – and the will to run away to be able to.

"Yes", said Captain Rickbone faintly. "Like mother, like daughter."


End file.
